Afrit of Thyme part one, A Dresden Files Fanfic
by Badger4
Summary: A simple little story about a very complicated character
1. Chapter 1

Afrit of thyme - A Harry Dresden Fanfic Part One

_This of course is a small dalliance, Harry Dresden and all the worlds he lives in is Jim Butcher's. I am just playing for a time. Simon Wu, is mine, and I hope he amuses you, amused the hell out of me._

_This takes place perhaps just after Grave Peril, and before Summer Knight. This Harry is not as shell shocked, and this Ancient Mai, is more like the television series' portrayal._

_Of course I appreciate comments, and I hope that this amuses you for a short time...the band is hired, the hall is rented…I guess this is my dance…._

The knife in my hand was sharp, heavy, and comforting. Have you ever held something so beautiful that as your hand warmed it, it warmed you from the inside out? That's what my knife does; it's a friend, a cohort, an extension of me. I always thrill a little when I hold it, its weight steadies me, makes me feel bigger than I really am.

I had run it across my sharpening steel only seconds before and it fairly rang with potential, almost as if it was eager to be about its work. I rolled my head slowly on my shoulders, hearing the deep cracks and cricks of my loosening muscles. There were simply no more excuses; it was time to get to it. The deep thump of bass pounded in my ears from the boom box in the corner, music of the devil my Grandfather used to call it.

I brought it up perpendicular to my body, and moved with confidence. The carbon steel blade glided through the flesh like a freight train through tissue paper. I increased my pace, letting my arm follow the knife, falling into old patterns that my body knew all too well.

In moments there were two dozen Roma tomatoes sitting in a steel prep container, halved, seeded, and hollowed waiting for the crab salad mixture I had prepared. I passed their pulp through a sieve and into another container already containing lemon juice, spices and oil. I could already taste how good this dish was going to be.

See I'm a cook, a simple preparer of food, one of the hundreds of invisible souls that fix the thousands of meals that folk eat everyday. I slice, sauté, and sauce day in and day out, happy to make something I can be proud of, if only for a moment. The fact that I am also a magician; well that's kind of a whole different kettle of won ton.

Magician you say, like with kids parties? Pulling rabbits out of hats, and sawing beautiful women in half? Well no, I am the other kind of magician, you know with the throwing lightning, summoning demons, and causing broomsticks to dance. Not that I have ever really done those things, cause that's just creepy. I mean have you ever seen a demon? Those things will jump on your face and lay eggs in your eyes man.

I whipped the tomato mixture furiously, forcing liquids that had no business being together into an emulsion that would hold together forever if I had any say in the matter. I poured the dressing into a small plastic squeeze bottle and capped it, then took my knife back into my hand and attacked a small bundle of chives, reducing them to a fine green mist.

My grand pop was a magician back in the old country, and he brought the lore and the power with him. He married my grand mom, who was from here, but still had ties to a different old country, and they had my pops.

Now there is much you can say for my dad, he was a great cook, a brilliant business man, and quite the tinker, but a magician, not so much. Dad was a practical man, his head was supported by Mr. Science and the Los Angeles public school system and he wasn't about to dabble in things that he couldn't see. Part of me really can't blame him, I mean knowing what I know about magic I would have stayed away from it too if I had the choice.

Thank the celestrials for my mom, I don't know if it was fate, coincidence or if my dad was looking for someone like dear old grand mom, but he fell in love and married one of the west coast's more power witches. She and my grandpop were the ones who taught me to use my talents, to control them so as not to hurt myself or anyone else. They kept it a secret from my dad for sixteen long years, teaching me to feel the unseen world around me while teaching me to slice tomatoes into roses.

Pop's restaurant is in the heart of Los Angeles, near the park that Wilshire cuts across. The Cloud Dragon is a 1920s storefront with a parking lot behind it and a funny pink neon dragon sign over the doorway. My dad wanted a fiery red dragon, but there must have been a thing with the magic cause no matter how he tried, all it ever did was flash a very cute pink. See with most people who use magics, technology kinda goes haywire around them, or fails to work at all.

Our sign reads the Cloud Dragon in English, the Celestial Dragon in what I believe is Cantonese, and not one person in the area can give you directions to us if you ask them where either of those places are. But you ask them where Pinky's is and they will point us out without hesitation.

We are closed on Sundays, as the downtown business foot traffic dies out completely and the area becomes a market place for street hustlers and the homeless. I spend many Sundays cleaning the kitchen, and playing with dishes that I will never be able to serve, like the crab and tomato salad that I was working on now.

See we're a Chinese restaurant, one of the hundreds of small places that serve fried rice and two meats to the hungry Los Angelelinos that have only an hour for lunch. We're clean, and our egg rolls are pretty good, but the crowds won't be beating down our doors for them.

But someone was doing just that, a sharp rap on the glass door was loud enough to be heard over the devil music and to break my concentration on my cooking. I hate when people interrupt my day off, I mean I really hate it. I wiped off the knife on a side towel and went to go vent on the poor fool who chose to bother me. The lights were off, there were no servers to be seen, heck even Pinky was turned off, why would anyone think we were open for service?

I got my answer maybe a step or two past the counter. A small spot between my shoulder blades began to itch fiercely. See, my grand pop on my eighth birthday took me to a friend of his, and with promises of ice cream and a video game if I was good, got me tattooed like a sailor.

Not just with any kind of tattoos, glyphs and dragons all over my body with inks from the old country. I remember being held down and screaming for what seemed like hours as a man with a very kind voice burned horrible shapes into my body. I don't remember passing out, but I woke up shaking and crying in my grandfather's Oldsmobile, completely mark free with my mom asking me what was wrong.

When I told her what grandpa had done, she just held me and told me it was all a bad dream, and that I was okay and she wouldn't ever let anyone hurt her one and only baby, and you know being eight, I even believed her.

The rapping came again and the spot on my back began to itch furiously, I steeled myself for some very bad news. That particular spot thanks to the glyphs that my grandfather had etched into my skin only reacts to powerful magics, the stronger the magic, the stronger the itch.

A tall lean figure tapped on the glass of the door with what looked like a mop handle, sometimes homeless folks will ask if they can wipe down our windows for a meal, and most carry their own tools. He was dressed in a long duster, dark pants and white sneakers. The duster had a sort of cape thing that fluttered behind him in the April breeze.

When he saw me his lean sharp features broke into a ragged smile and he waved at me with his free hand. I reached under the cash register for the bamboo backscratcher I keep there for just such emergencies and pushed it down my back to give me a little relief. Not only does my backscratcher provide me a straight line to focus my will through, it is also hella good for getting the itch I can't reach.

"Simon Wu?" the man asked through the glass with a friendly enough voice. He kept his eyes locked on my nose and that told me volumes. See certain wizards can look through you if they catch your eyes. They can see all the truths of you if they get you in a staring contest, and they can pretty much open your soul up like a sardine can if they do one of those Lifetime channel stares at you.

"Closed!" I shouted in my best bad movie accent, you have to keep up appearances, "No open! Come back Monday, closed!"

The man's smile went from friendly to businesslike, and he tried again, slower and more deliberate. I love it when people think speaking slower makes English universally understood. He probably thought I couldn't hear him through the door.

"I am looking for Simon Wu, I was told that this was his place?" he reached into a pocket and produced a scrap of paper, there was a small silver pentacle that hung on a chain around his neck and he looked down at the paper and then up at Pinky.

I was hoping that I could frustrate him into going away, make him have to return when someone who spoke English was working here. See our type of folk are exclusive, not hermits you understand, but we really don't work well with others.

"No food!" I shouted again, sure I felt stupid, but I try to give folks what they expect. "No clean windows! Comeback Monday please, food Monday." I turned away and started back toward my kitchen. I could feel the man's eyes literally on my back and I scratched a little more furiously with my scratcher.

"Look bub," the voice boomed from every flat surfaced in the restaurant, "Why you gotta go and bust balls?" The kitchen lights flickered and my boom box squealed, sparked, and died. I froze, something like that took a lot of power, and to go and do it out in the open meant that this joker wasn't afraid to hurt someone when he didn't get what he wanted.

I spun around, and in one leap was back at the door, I pulled the backscratcher out of my jacket and slammed the "hand" part against the small brass symbols mounted on the door jamb, most folks think they're Chinese, but those symbols were ancient when Chinese was just a bunch of grunts and hand gestures. I pushed will down the line of my body through the grain of the bamboo forcing it into the symbols activating the circle that my grandfather built into the walls of the restaurant.

Like I said grand pop was from the old country, and he learned coming here that even if you are not looking for trouble, it sometimes comes looking for you. He built guards and wards into the building when he bought it back in the day. Mom put even more protections on in the way of glyphs and sigils painted into the walls and roof of the place when she married dad, and I added a thing or two when I learned how. All these protection magics made the Dragon one of the most secure places in the spiritual world.

My will wakened the magics that both grand pop and mom had set, walls of power shot up with a bang that I felt in my very core. I was pissed, I hate bullies, and ones that use magic like a club, well they really pissed me off.

The man must have felt it because he stumbled back from the door like he was pushed, he recovered looking shocked and angry and I prepared for the suck. A scarlet aura sprang up around him, outlining his form as I felt the power flood into him. His eyes seemed to glow with fire and I pushed even more will down the backscratcher.

"Bug off Gandalf!" I shouted, "movie 's over, and the Shire is four thousand miles that way!" I said hooking my right thumb over my shoulder. The man, 's aura stuttered, his eyes opened wide and he began to chuckle, the chuckle turned into a laugh, a deep one of real mirth. He covered his face with one hand and leaned on his mop handle as the laughter shook him.

When he could look up again he shook his head, and the friendly smile had returned. Great, this guy wasn't just a magus, he was a crazy magus. I wondered if mom had ever had to deal with something like this.

"Sorry. sorry," he chuckled, "Gandalf…that's funny," He put up his free hand again in a peaceful gesture, "bad manners, it was a long trip. I had to ride a train here, and they almost lost my luggage. Sorry I came off like a jerk, Is Mr. Wu available? I was told I could find him here." I lowered the backscratcher and found that my back had stopped itching.

"And who are you again?" I said without the Mr. Miyagi accent, he told me and the fear shot back into my throat.

Do you remember the last time you were pulled over by a cop? Remember how your stomach fluttered as he walked up to your window. Well multiply that by a million, this guy wasn't a cop, most cops had guidelines, rules they had to follow. This guy was Luca Brazci, he was an enforcer, and showing up at my door meant something very bad was going to happen.

We might be an exclusive people, but things get around. Where he's from, this guy is legend, he killed a vampire baroness, smashed up a full grown loup garu, and death followed him like a small dog on a leash. People died when this guy showed up, weather they deserved it or not.

He must have seen the fear on my face, cause he put down the mop handle and held up his other hand showing it was empty.

"Whoa, whoa, "he said, "what's the problem? I said I was sorry about the showboating."

"The problem," a pleasant voice out of nowhere said, "is that Mr. Wu has heard of you. He knows your reputation for mayhem, and he is a very cautious man."

The voice belonged to a girl of about twenty who had just appeared to the right of the man. Now when I say appeared, I don't mean she walked up, or slipped around him, I mean one moment she wasn't there, the next she was.

She was cute, dressed in a green t-shirt, blue jeans, with a black backpack covered in cartoon character stickers. Her hair was cut in a rough mop, and was purple on one side. She looked like a club kid, wide eyed and innocently sexy. Both the man, and I jumped away the from door, and he stumbled nearly falling to the sidewalk.

"Hells Bells Mai!" he shouted, "what are you trying to do, give me a heart attack!"

"Oh, and the lightshow I just saw was what, to impress Mr. Wu here on eco-friendly light bulbs?" Mai purred, he looked sheepish and picked up his mop handle, or should I say his staff, cause he sure as hell wasn't here to do the windows.

Ancient Mai walked up to door and smiled at me, her green almond eyes were warm and she was careful not to get too close to my threshold.

"Mr. Wu, I have to apologize, this is all my fault. I should have notified you immediately when I called this one here," she said pleasantly. "I became involved in some council business, and it slipped my mind, if there is any damage I of course will make it right. May we come in? I am sure we can straighten out matters to your satisfaction."

I unlocked the top and bottom locks of the door, but I didn't break the circle. I pulled the door inward, and stood away from the threshold.

"What is this all about, why are you here?" I figured I would get right to the point, no sense in delaying it if Ancient Mai was involved. They would try to kill me or not, and I would hope that all of my protection magics would turn aside enough of the blast so that someone could identify my body.

"Oh no trouble to do with you Mr. Wu, we just needed a safe place to meet, the war you know." She glared at the tall dark wizard, and by all the celestrials the man glared right back at her. "Just let us in, we will be about our business quickly and then we will be gone. "

"You're bringing the war here?" I said, my belly fluttering again. My family had stayed out of the council's way by working subtle magics, nothing to directly influence others. We built things, traded information with the Los Angeles wizarding community, created protection spells for people who didn't use magic, but mainly, we cooked.

My mother was the one who had started trouble, she put down a group of ghouls who were tired of eating corpses and had started going after homeless people. She said it was because embalmers were using stronger chemicals, and the bodies that the ghouls usual fed on were becoming poisonous to them. It was during a battle at the city college that my mom had met Ancient Mai.

"Oh by stars and stones boy no, your mother and I had an agreement. I just need a place to discuss some business with this out of town wizard. So will you please invite me in?" She smiled warmly with a patience of someone who had already won, "I promise you, that during this meeting you will have my full protections."

Now you may think with all the talk of protections, that I'm a coward, I'm not, I'm a cook. Listen buddy, you try to bring in a lunch rush when you're down a server, when your second cook is half asleep and you suddenly have run out of onions, then you'll see real bravery. My folks (except for my mom) never had to go toe to toe with the darkness. We used the craft, knowledge, and surprise to fight the things that jumped out of the never-never. The war between the vampire court and the white council was big, it was all about going face to face with the things that went bump, and it was no place for a little old fry cook like me.

I reached out my hand, breaking the circle and Ancient Mai took it gracefully, I felt her power thrum up my arm like I had dipped it in ice water. I shivered a little, remember the glyphs on the doorway? Well Ancient Mai was teaching that language a couple of hundred years before to whatever was on the earth before there was a China. She stepped through the doorway like a princess, confident and graceful and then turned around to face the wizard who was right behind her.

"Not you," she said, and the tall man stopped, his face surprised.

"What?" he said exasperated, nearly tripping again.

"A lot of testosterone was splashed around just now boys, and I don't need the fall out from you monkeys messing up the business, so I want you to shake hands and make nice."

The man made like he was going to say something smart, but Mai shut him down with a look. You just don't mess with a million year old something carrying a cartoon covered back pack. He shook his head, and stuck out his left hand without hesitation.

Not wanting to look bad in front of Mai, I took it, I had to give him points, he didn't try to crush my hand like a jerk. He simply gripped it firmly, and pumped it up and down once. Then the strangest thing happened, it was like someone gently took my chin in their hands and turned my head to meet his eyes. At first I thought it was him, a compulsion spell or something like that, but the look on his face showed me that he was just as surprised that it was happening to him. I tried to turn my head away, but it was too late.

We saw each other, and the bottom dropped out of my head. I rarely use a soul gaze, it is to much like standing naked in front of an audience and trying to belt out the stars spangle banner. It opens you up, both for the person looking at you to see, and for you to see them. Humans aren't supposed to see into each other that deeply, it shorts out all the pleasant lies we tell each other as social lubricant.

I was wrong, this man wasn't an enforcer, he had hated hurting people, the violence that he had done hurt him deeply. He was a passionate man, one who was sick of no one helping people who didn't have magic. He was sick of those with power just turning away and letting the who didn't die for them, like ants. This was a man who had lost a great deal, and was willing to lose even more to stand by his convictions. He wasn't a bully, he was a hero, and I felt like a jerk not treating him like one.

I saw something else too there in his eyes, rage, dark and terrifying. Not like anger all hot reds and blasting whites, this was something so dark that I didn't have words for it. His rage was built like a stained glass window made up of his fears and frustrations, but mostly it was made up of loss. He had lost so many he loved, and the thought of losing more of them drove his rage into a force that if he unleashed it, would probably turn half of LA into a new satellite. He held it in check using his knowledge, his humor, and most of all the duty and responsibility he felt to those he still loved. This was a good man, hollowed out by tragedy and violence, but a good man.

I broke the soul gaze first and sat down hard on one of my tables causing a little earthquake of teacups. He spun around and threw up on the sidewalk. Like I said, soul gazes are not something that any magician likes to do.

He came through the door wiping his mouth, and he was more than a little pale, but his smile was back and it was genuine. I don't have a lot of mirrors in my life, too many things jump out of mirrors, and I really don't want to be that honest with myself about anything. What he saw in me made him barf, and I hoped that he never needed to tell me about it.

"Sorry about the stupid accent thing," I said not really thinking, "People usually leave me alone if they think I don't understand them."

"Got that" he said sitting down in one of the seats at a nearby table, "it's why I read science fiction." Now it was my turn to smile.

"Good," said Ancient Mai cheerily, "now we can get down to business."

"Do you think I could get some water?" the man asked, his dark eyes coming up to rest on my nostrils.

"Sure Mr. D", I said getting up, I closed the door and then bolted it. "Say are you hungry? I was playing around in the kitchen and I have some stuff."

"Hell yes!" he said with gusto, "whatever you're making smells great." I looked to Mai who nodded and sat down opposite Mr. D.

"Thank you Mr. Wu," she said, "there is nothing better than good food to eat when discussing the apocalypse."

Both Mr. D and I turned to her and stared at her stunned.


	2. Chapter 2

Afrit of time part two

Afrit of thyme part two

_Okay Harry Dresden is not mine, nor is Ancient Mai. They both are creations of Jim Butcher and his wonderful series THE DRESDEN FILES. I have taken a few liberties with Ancient Mai, portraying her more like the character from the TV series. _

_So lets get on with it, breaks over._

"The Apocalypse, why Ancient Mai, what a wonderful joke. Very droll, a wonderful jest to start the meal, here let me get you something to drink." Is what my brain said, unfortunately my stomach and my heart seem to be in control of my mouth.

"Apoco-whaaaa?" I stammered, Mr. D. made similar noises.

"That is why I had you come to Los Angeles Wizard," Mai said seriously, "but I am fatigued and hungry from my travels. Mr. Wu, I know you are closed, but your offer of refreshments is most welcome." Hearing that, I hurried off to my kitchen, I know when I am being dismissed, and for the first time I wasn't pissed about it.

I got to work finishing the crab and tomato dish while I planned the rest of their food. I added an egg poached in crab butter to each of the stuffed tomatoes, garnished them with greens and tomato dressing, and placed them on the pass to the dining room. Then I set some steaks to broil, tipped three large handfuls of French fries into a pot of oil, and heated some water for tea. .

When the steaks were medium, I smeared them with a paste of onions, blue cheese and garlic, and put them back under the broiler to finish. It's strange, no matter what calamity is happening in the worlds, when I'm in the kitchen I feel like nothing can touch me. When all the food was ready I filled a tumbler with ice and coke, a pot with hot water, and brought it all out into the dining room on a large tray.

Ancient Mai, her face tranquil and unreadable sat with her fingers steepled, Mr. D. sat dark and brooding with his long face between his hands.

"How is that even possible Mai, I mean stars and stones!"

"Villalobos has found someone who had access to military personnel. He found the afrit in Iran, and then had it transported to the states by boat. My sources lost it when it reached San Pedro, but as of Thursday, we know it is in the city."

"A boat? Something as powerful as an afrit would completely screw up a boat's navigation system, if not sink the darn thing." I placed the tray on the table between them, and Mr. D's stomach let out a loud gurgling sound breaking the intensity of their conversation..

"Sorry," he said accepting the glass of coke, "fang gets a little anxious around feeding time." I passed the pot of hot water to Mai and she looked approvingly at me as she pulled open her cartoon covered back pack. She produced a small handful of powder that she dropped into the pot and the air became fragrant with the scent of jasmine and honey as it steeped.

"Nice stickers," I said as I passed her a plate.

"I love their colors," she said with a youthful smile, "and they are all the rage in the clubs."

"You go to clubs?" choked Mr. D, a little coke going down the wrong pipe.

"I do many things Wizard," Ancient Mai said coolly, she poured her tea into a cup and sipped it. Her green eyes closing with pleasure. "I believe that Villalobos bound the afrit into one of the soldiers who returned home on a hospital ship."

"Hells bells," Mr. D gasped, "I knew I should have gakked that bitch when she was still in Chicago."

I didn't know who Villalobos was, but I had to agree. Magics like that broke several of the big laws that most practitioners adhere to. I felt a jarring chill, it is one thing to hear about the big bad, but it is quite another to know it was in your city.

I turned to leave, marveling on how weirdly my day had gone. I mean, I woke up that morning thinking that I would do some light chores, cook a little, and maybe make it an early night. Now I was serving an early supper to the supernatural world's answer to Batman and Commissioner Gordon, and they were discussing the end of the world, you ever have a day like that? It was Mai's next words that kicked up those stomach flutters again.

"Please sit with us Adept" Mai asked, eating her salad with delicate bites. "I have to commend your culinary skills, you have balanced the crab perfectly." I smiled, I like it when people appreciate the work I put into a dish, it's vain I know, but I takes it where I gets it. Hey I'm a guy, ego always comes before abject terror. I pulled up a chair feeling like a butterfly about to be introduced to the rest of the collection.

"Yeah Simon, this is incredible" Mr. D. said around a mouth full of fries and steak. "I can never make a steak like this, they are always too rare or too cooked and what's on it, cheese and what?"

"Tell you what," I said momentarily distracted by my ego stroking, "I'll tell you how I do the steak if you give me an idea of how you made my restaurant into a THX commercial."

"Thaumaturgy," he said softly, as if trying to keep anyone from overhearing, "I caused the wood in the walls and counters to react to the wood in my staff." He speared more fries on his fork and won big points with me for not asking for ketchup. "I was betting that in a place like this the tables would still have wood in them, and not be all Formica."

Mentally I whistled appreciatively, to work sympathetic magic usually you needed a ritual. You bind the thing you want to affect with a symbol of that thing, and then you form a circle to focus your will. Like with voodoo dolls, poke the doll and the ex jumps, not that I've ever done something like that. To do that kind of magic on the fly and to affect such a large area took a lot of juice. I tried to think on how a spell like that could be done so quickly, and how I could use it in other ways.

"Blue cheese and thyme," I said, my thoughts preoccupied with the loudspeaker spell, "you put it under the broiler after searing it."

"How do you keep a broiler going," he asked looking up from his steak . "I mean you can't use charcoal in a kitchen like this can you?"

"Reversed a circle around all of the stoves and the water heater, I can keep magic limited when I activate them. Keeps things pretty much safe and sound, though I have had accidents, I have several dampening wards under the floor so we haven't had any fires."

"I would have never thought of something like that," he said excitedly, he ran a hand through his dark hair, "that's brilliant. Say can you do something like that with a fridge?"

"Well…," I started, and Mai gently cleared her throat, the mood dropped and we both fell into silence.

"I was informing Wizard Dresden about a rather pressing matter that has entered Los Angeles."

"The Apocalypse," I returned, and my pulse beat in my temples.

"Just so, Adept Wu," Mai said wiping her mouth on a paper napkin. She turned over a teacup in front of me and filled it with steaming tea. The smell of jasmine and honey became much stronger and my heart slowed a pace.

"I requested you to travel for three reasons Wizard Dresden," Mai said pouring another cup of perfumed liquid for herself. I sipped at my steaming cup and was rewarded by something that tasted like the sound of violins being played by a really great orchestra. I really can't express the flavor of the tea in any other way, it's smokey sweetness made me close my eyes and think of an Adagio for strings.

"First, you have previous experience with Villalobos, you are familiar with her tactics" Mai said, "Second, since she has involved herself with a high profile organization like the United States Army, a measure of discretion must be taken. Even though your methods are reckless, and your actions for the most part inelegant Wizard, you have an uncanny ability to avoid the attentions of the mortal world. "Finally" Mai paused, locking her green eyes on Mr. D's. "There are no others on this coast with the ability to rectify this situation to my satisfaction."

"No one?" he said amazed, "what about that guy who looks like that guy from the Matrix? I heard he was good."

"He went to England, something about someone using his name and bilking people out of their retirement money for fake ghost busting." I answered. "Seems that there's another wizard in London with his name, and he went to check him out."

"Really?" Mr. D. said with a grim smile, "you would think with a name like his, the impersonator would just die of embarrassment. How about the witches up in San Francisco, the really hot sisters? They kicked some major butt the last time I was here."

"The sisters have gone to Ireland," Ancient Mai said with noticeable irritation, "to address the red court's activities there." Mr. D looked back down to his plate. "This is pointless wizard," she said, her voice gaining intensity. "I have requested your aid, and the only question you should be asking is how to best accomplish this assignment."

"Is that the only question I should be asking Ancient Mai?" he said looking directly at her neck "Not why the head of the Wardens, one of the strongest wizards in America, who can call on the entire might of the council, needs to meet in a safe house with a reckless inelegant Wizard? Why didn't you call someone like…Morgan, he would jump at the chance to kiss your butt and put a cap in this black magic bitch"

The room grew cold, I am not saying the mood of the room, I mean the air in the room froze. I could see my breath clouds as Mai drew power.

"You dare!" She shouted, her green eyes became paler and lost all semblance of humanity. She grasped both sides of the table and stood to her full towering five foot nothing. Mr. D. stood up as well, and oddly, it seemed she looked down at him."

"Yeah," Mr. D. said without anger, "and what are you gonna do about it, call the wardens to pick me up? Here I'll go make that call myself, in fact, let's get the entire council in on this! If it's the apocalypse like you say, I'm sure they'll love to hear about how all their worlds are going to end! So bring it Mai, bring it, or let me get back to Chicago, I have a cat to feed and research to do!"

Mai's eyes flashed and then returned to their original green color and I knew he had struck a nerve. During this, I did not push my chair back from the table, and I did not ready a shield to protect myself from the blast, if anyone tells you I did, well they're lying.

"That will not be necessary Wizard," Mai said wearily, "I had forgotten how deductive and irritating you can be at times," she folded back into her seat.

"It's why all the girls love me," Mr. D. said with a weak grin, he sat down as well. The room grew warm again as both of them calmed down, and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

"I apologize Adept," Mai said to me in a voice that was far too old to come out of the pretty girl across from me, she sipped the last of her cold tea. "I have behaved poorly."

I mumbled something, and scooted my chair back toward the table releasing the energies I had pulled into my shield, okay so maybe they aren't exactly lying.

"So out with it Mai," the tall wizard growled as he sat back down in his seat. "What is so important that you had to call me out here to sunny California, is it really _the_ apocalypse, or is it just a apocalypse."

"The soldier that Villalobos bound the afrit into," she said her voice small and vulnerable. "He is mine."

"You took an apprentice?" Mr. D. said amazed, and then corrected himself, "no, an apprentice would be protected, you could still call the wardens." Then his eyes widened so the whites shown around them.

"Oh stars! You have a boyf…" he stuttered.

"He is my consort wizard," Mai cut him off with her voice regaining its strength. I felt my jaw hit the floor for a second time that day. Imagine a lightning bolt going to a baseball game, or an earthquake sitting down with you for a beer. Forces of nature just don't act human, that's what makes them forces of nature.

"He isn't a practitioner, and you involved him in magics," Mr. D. said, and I could almost see the wheels in his head begin to put facts together. "Maybe protection spells, and small come hithers and glamours, things that all lovers would do in our world, but in his…"

"They are forbidden," she said finishing his sentence, "He is precious to me wizard, I just did those spells anyone would do to keep him safe and close." Her green eyes shown bright with something, surely not tears, but something. "Things that you would have done for Ms. Rodriguez had events been different." I saw a flare of the multicolored rage I had seen in the wizard's eyes when we soul gazed, but it died as quickly as it had risen.

"But I'm not the head of the White Council's wardens am I?" He said pushing his empty plates to the center of the table, he put his hands in front of him and I caught the flash of a silver ring on his right hand, as well as a bracelet of small brass shield shaped charms around his right wrist.

"Just so," Mai returned, "this complicates the issue greatly."

"Why?" I heard my mouth say, sometimes my brain gets distracted, and my mouth does what it wants. "The same rules should apply shouldn't they?" Mai looked at me, the way parents throughout time have looked at their children whose engines never get above ten miles an hour.

"Because Simon, a mundane lover opens Mai up to outside influences," Mr. D. said, "someone with power could hold her lover hostage, and with no innate magical safeguards they could use his bond to force her to do things. See if it were you or I, we could cause some trouble, and the wardens would swoop down and put us in the earth. Mai on the other hand could bring about a war before anyone could stop her. If the council found out, they would have to sever the outside bond to her completely."

"So you see the problem wizard," Ancient Mai said grimly, "were the council to find out, they would eliminate Hector, and probably have me demoted, if not removed all together. I would gladly accept punishment, but Hector's death is unacceptable and I cannot directly act to save him, nor send any of the wardens in my stead."

"So you need someone who the council doesn't looking at, someone in fact the council wouldn't mind ignoring." Mr. D. said. Ancient Mai didn't say anything, she just sat her hands folded on the table looking small. They sat there for a long while, long enough for me to get restless. I started to get up to clear the plates, when Mr. D. spoke again.

"How did this guy slip your leash Mai?" his voice was still even, but it struck Mai and she answered acidly.

"Some idiot started a war with the red court, I was called away to deal with their attacks in Cypress, and I lost him."

They glared deeply into each others eyes, held their gaze for a second, and then Mr. D jerked away like he had been slapped. He shook his head like a dog casting off water, Ancient Mai looked strangely satisfied.

"Fine," he said pinching the bridge of his nose, "Three hundred a day, plus expenses, and I can't guarantee anything Mai, I don't have any contacts here in LA." Mai nodded and opened her backpack again, she put a thick manila envelope on the table. Mr. D. picked it up and looked inside, He riffled some bills, and then pulled a smaller envelope from it and carefully tucked it into an inside pocket

"Is that sufficient Wizard Dresden?" Mai said pleasantly.

"It will do for a start," he replied and stuffed the thick envelope in his duster, "there is just one more thing I need you to do." Ancient Mai scowled, and pushed back her chair to leave, Mr. D's face was gentle. "You saw it in the soul gaze."

"I don't see how that will accomplish anything Wizard," Mai growled.

"Words are words Mai, you know their power, all I am asking is a formal request." She stamped her foot, looking to all the world like a frustrated girl who found out her favorite club had been close..

"Fine!" she shouted, she sighed and closed her eyes. "Help me Harry Dresden, you're my only hope!" With that she turned her back and stomped off to the bathrooms behind the kitchen.

"You gotta admit," Mr. D said grinning wickedly, "that was kinda cool."


	3. Chapter 3

_So here we are at chapter 3, I hope you like this little story I am playing with. Harry Dresden, Ancient Mai, and Bob are the sole property of Mr. Jim Butcher and are characters in his series of books the Dresden Files. I have taken shameless liberties with the character of Ancient Mai, and I regret nothing!!_

Mr. D. helped me clean up while Ancient Mai was in the bathroom, and he was busy inspecting the circles that were built above each of the stoves in my kitchen when she returned.

She came over to me as I was cleaning and putting away my knives, her face showing no evidence of the recent events. As my mom always said, with great power comes great deniability.

"I know these," she said with a smile, and pulled a long boning knife from its place in my case. She weighed it in her hand and then held it up to her eye to check its edge. "Your grandfather would be very happy that you are caring for them so well."

"He said that with them, I could work anywhere."

"So you chose to work here," she replied, her voice warm and silky, "rejoin the family business." She put the boning knife back in its place, and I closed up the case.

"Well mom always said to do what you know, and I know how to bring food to the people" I said not looking at her. I never liked talking about my mom, and I liked it less when other people did it.

"You have done that Adept," Mai said reaching up and taking my shoulders in her hands, she faced me and then went up on her toes so she could touch her forehead to mine. "You have done that admirably, your mother would be very proud."

She let me go, and said something that was made up of vowels and very little else. I felt a little quiver in the air around me like someone had turned up the air conditioner and then it was gone. Mai then reached into her pocket for something and took my hand.

"For the excellent meal, and for our intrusion into your afternoon," she said handing me five one hundred dollar bills. I opened my mouth to refuse, and then remembered my boom box, now a big plastic paperweight, and changed my mind.

Mr. D. asked to call for a cab, and I directed him to the phone we keep in the dining room, then I turned out the kitchen lights and fans, and let my fingers trail across the small brass dragon near the kitchen's entrance to bring the wards under the floor to life.

"Yeah, that's right, the Pink Dragon!" Mr. D. shouted over the receiver. It was an old phone, but it still had trouble with magic. "Yeah, I'll be waiting!" He hung up and shook his head, then asked Ancient Mai if she wanted to split the fare.

"I will find my own way wizard," she snorted, "and you will be in touch soon I trust?"

"Unless they have one of those for two for one deals at Disneyland, you know how I love the teacups."

Mai grimaced, shook her head and then she was gone. There was no pop, no flash, nothing, one moment there were three of us at the door and the next Mr. D. and I just staring at nothing. The tall wizard let out a breath, and ran his hand through his dark hair.

"I will never get use to that," he said, "I mean shouldn't there be some Scottish guy saying ENERGIZE or something like that?"

"Yeah," I chuckled, appreciating the humor, "but I guess it's better than being a little girl walking alone through this neighborhood at night."

"She's hardly a little girl," Mr. D. snorted.

"Well yeah I know that," I said in agreement, "but she looks like one, and most of the hustlers really don't have the same kind of eyes you do." Mr. D.'s forehead furrowed in a question, and he rubbed his chin.

"She looks like a little girl to you?"

"Yeah, twenty something, cute with purple hair," I answered, "why, what does she look like to you?"

"Well not cute and twenty something," he said shaking his head, "I guess that something else I'll never get used to. I take it that you and she go a ways back?"

"She knew my mom, and she watches out for the restaurant and me."

"Nice, it's always a plus to have a scary twenty something in your corner during a fight." Mr. D said picking up his staff. I was still chewing on the idea that we didn't see the same Ancient Mai, then again as the old saying goes strange and fearsome are the eyes of wizards.

"Mr. D." I offered my hand out to him, our eyes met as he took my handshake. "I wish you the best of luck here in LA, and no offense, I really hope we don't see that much of each other while you're here."

His smile never faltered as he shook my hand, and he shook it without trying to put me in a vice grip. Like I said he was a good man, beat to hell and back, but a good man.

"Yeah," he said wearily as if reading my thoughts, "I get that a lot lately, still thank you for the steak, it was great. Maybe I can get another one before I leave."

"Sure, just let me know" I said, and he left to wait for his taxi. I quieted the nagging voice in the back of my mind that kept telling me to go and offer the guy a ride. I wasn't a superhero, and I certainly did not need his kind of calamity. Besides, I told the little voice, guys like Mr. D. are the solitary type, I mean you never see Batman hanging out after work for wings and beer with the boys.

I took one last look at my restaurant, and then stepped out and locked the front door, making sure my wards were in place. A slight breeze had risen in the evening air, bringing the smells of gasoline, humanity, and frying food with it. I stretched a bit, the breeze felt good, and I breathed in the city's smells deeply, I loved being part of the city, with all of the lives around me.

The neighborhood around the dragon closes down in the evenings, with the hustlers going into the park for more clandestine dealings, and the homeless going to find safe places for the night, the streets are usually empty.

I looked up and down the street for Mr. D., but he must have already gotten his cab, because aside from a few folks waiting for a bus, the sidewalk was deserted.

Or else he's watching you from one of the rooftops, his cape heroically flowing in the night air, said my little voice. I chuckled, and resisted the urge to look up as I headed for the parking lot behind the restaurant.

The lot behind the Cloud Dragon is small, but it's very well lit and it serves us pretty well during the weekend lunch time rushes. Even on Sundays there are always a few cars parked in it after hours. My neighbors prefer the light and security of the lot to parking of the street. So I didn't see anything suspicious about the two figures bending over next to a blue hatchback and peering in the windows.

The man was of average height, wearing a grey sports coat, and dark slacks. The woman was slight, with long brown hair pulled into a ponytail, a light blue blazer, and a darker skirt. When she spotted me approaching she tapped the man on his shoulder and he stood up to face me.

He had a round face with blue eyes, a generous mouth and thinning blond hair. His sunburned cheeks made him look a lot younger than the smile lines around his eyes reported.

"Hi there!" he said cheerfully, as they both came toward me. The lady stayed behind him and she seemed to sniffing the air. I stopped short of them, just inside a circle of light cast by one of the lot's overhead floods.

"My wife and I are sure glad to see you," he said stopping by the bumper of the hatchback. "I locked my keys and my cell in the car, and I was hoping you might call Triple A for us." The woman moved around the man to stand beside him, and she sniffed the air like she smelled something bad.

I was about to tell them I didn't carry a cell, when the woman's eyes widened abruptly. She made a strange mewling sound and gripped the man's arm as if to pull him toward me.

"Smell wizard!" the woman hissed as she leaned toward me, pulling the man along. "It's all over him." As the couple moved out of the shadows I could see them more clearly, the woman although dressed smartly, had eyes that were completely mad. Flecks of spit hung in the corners of her mouth, and her hair looked dead and flat.

The pupils of the man's eyes grew huge; filling the whites like someone had poured ink into them. He pulled the woman back, and seemed to sling her behind him as he moved like oil toward me.

"Well, isn't this my lucky day," he said, his voice becoming a growl that sounded like a lion imitating Darth Vader. The lines of his face grew hard and jutted out at weird angles, and his generous mouth opened to reveal a set of needle sharp white teeth. "Hey buddy, lets talk about Dresden."

The woman snarled and her eyes seemed to fill with blood, crimson filling the whites until her eyes were totally red. I raised my hand out in front of me and gathered my will, the air grew dry and I licked my lips as the moisture was drawn out of them.

"Stop!" I barked, and surprisingly they both hesitated, I guess if a cheeseburger yelled at me I would hold up for a second too. "This is a neutral place, it is under protections, and no harm can be wrought in this place." The man's horrible face darkened and the ripsaw smile disappeared.

"Neutral ground?" he said, seeming to study the words, "by whose authority?" The woman crouched down like an animal, her red eyes glowing with a mixture of what looked like lust and hunger.

"By the council's and the court's, there is a guarantee that this place is for parlay only!" I shouted which was growing more difficult as the air grew drier around me.

"They are sheep and whores," the man spat, "only good for food and screwing. They're guarantee is worthless." Both of them began to close on me again, the man angling to my right, and the woman to my left so they could hit me from two sides.

I wanted to run, but the monsters were between me and my truck. If I ran back toward the street they would be on me in a second and I would just die sweaty.

Whatever these things were, they either didn't know or didn't fear the white court or the council. This meant that they were either something very bad, or they were completely crazy, either way I had a very large case of death looking me square in the face.

The world grew still, and I could feel each individual beat of my heart. My mouth was a desert and I could feel the air pulling moisture from my eyes and nose. I took the one option left to me, I made it worse.

"So when they hunt you and your red eyed crack whore down, how weak are you gonna look?" I croaked.

Crack whore was apparently the red button for the woman, because she charged me howling. Her hands lengthened into claws, fingernails growing black and shiny. A deep smell of earth and rot came with her like a wave, and I could feel the bile rise in my throat as I opened my mouth to shout.

"E'e nalu!!" I cried, and blue green wave shaped tattoos flared on the back of my hand. A wrist thick column of water followed the line of my arm and smashed into the woman's face like a battering ram. Her feet, not slowed by my attack flew out from under her and she smashed backwards hard into the asphalt.

I spun to my right to see the man reach into his jacket and come up with a large square pistol. I willed the water into a wall between me and the gun as he fired twice. The gun roared loud enough to shatter my concentration but the wall held. Two shots struck the wall of water, and it burst into showers splashing me and the man.

The woman was back on her feet again and was circling me wearily, her face had been ruined by the blow the water had struck, and her flesh hung in wet tatters around her neck. What faced me now had a head like a horse's skull. Its blood red eyes shown with rage and madness, and its jaws were filled with sharp ripping canine teeth.

"Ghoul!" I heard myself shout, and I felt the acid bite of old hatreds coarse through me. The ghoul made a sound like rabbits being killed, and tore its clothes and outer skin off to the waist. Jaundiced yellow flesh stretched thin over thick knobs of horn and bone, and it fairly glowed under the spotlights. Long black spines jutted out from its shoulders and neck, and its arms hung down its sides now, too long to be human.

The man wiped the water from his face and brought the gun up again, I drew on my will, and I and he were instantly dry as the water gathered around me like a mist. He circled to find a better shot, apparently confused as to why I wasn't already gouting blood.

"I am going to tear your stomach open and eat your guts while you watch!" the ghoul shrieked trying to keep my attention divided.

"Oh you don't want to do that," a cheery voice said from the darkness behind the ghoul. We all turned to see Mr. D., his eyes wild, and his face covered with blood step out of the shadows. A scarlet aura danced around him, and his face was pulled into a wide smile. His black duster spread in a breeze that seemed to be coming from him, and he held his staff across his body like a rifle. "He's just chocked full of MSG and other nasty chemicals."

The man spun smoothly toward Mr. D. and fired without aiming. The gun seemed to roar forever, and the aura around Mr. D. flared into a silver nimbus.

I had a second to watch the wizard raise an arm and then the ghoul charged forward and I had to twist to the side to avoid its outstretched claws. I wasn't fast enough and fire raked my side as it hit me and I was slammed off my feet and carried to the ground.

I fought to get onto my back and to hold up my arms up to ward off the blows I knew were coming. I drew on my fear and pain, and in a panic released it through my hands.

A column of water once again blossomed an inch from my outstretched palm and smashed into the ghoul's head. It tried to roll away from the blow, but the water blasted it backwards off of me. It did manage to kick out savagely before it rolled off, and the kick caught me in the side of the head making my vision blur with a red fog. I rolled up to my feet, the kick adding inertia to my efforts and my head rung with the blow.

Mr. D. shouted a word made up of hard consonants and a lance of bright flame snapped out and smashed the gunman backwards into the hood of the blue hatchback. The sudden brightness of the fire combined with the ghoul's kick made my head swim, and I backpedaled looking for an exit.

The ghoul once again came to its feet and shook its monstrous head, thick yellow blood drooled from its mouth, and it started to circle me dazed. My side burned and for an instant I thought of all the wonderful corruption that was living under the ghoul's fingernails, or should I say finger claws.

It began to close on me more carefully, sickly yellow ooze making glowing splatters on the ground. I was outclassed, outgunned and I needed to get back into restaurant and pull the wards up around me.

"You're gonna die screaming," the ghoul slurred through its ruined mouth. Its voice, once female was now inhuman with pain and rage. I retreated further, hoping to find something that would buy me enough time to escape.

My fear reached up from my belly and began to stroke my heart, and I felt the metal chill of it down my spine. The ghoul seemed to drink in my fear and closed on me more confidently.

I heard small weak noises, and wondered if in the fight a stray had been hurt. When I figured out it was my voice making the sounds, self loathing roiled up inside me like a geyser.

"Weak stupid fool," the ghoul growled, "stupid water trick, just try your stupid water trick again." Then its eyes seemed to lose focus, like it was remembering something. "Water trick," it said pondering, "I remember you…we ate your mother."

The fear in my belly exploded into my brain, there it mixed with the loathing and the resulting storm came out of my mouth as a single clear phrase.

"Nalu!!" I shouted with cold hatred, the tattoos flared on both my hands, blue green waves glowing like neon signs under my skin. The ghoul started to dodge back, but there was no column of water this time, only a light mist that shrouded it, until all I could see was a dim silhouette.

"Stupid fog?!" the ghoul laughed, "you think you can hide from me with stupid fog?!" It charged screaming, confident that I was no longer a threat.

I clenched my fists and released my will, a bright lattice work of colors that bloomed behind my eyes, and I felt the rage flow through me like a rush of ice water.

"Mahu! nui loa!!"

The Ghoul's charge faltered like it hit a wall, and its screams turned from ones of rage and challenge, into ones of pain as the fog became super heated steam. It spun around madly, trying to escape the cloud of steam that surrounded and followed it like a swarm of cartoon bees. .

I watched as huge yellow blisters exploded on the ghoul's arms and face as the steam ravaged any exposed skin it touched. It howled and turned to face me, milky ruined eyes glaring blindly before it ran into the night, its screams echoing inhumanly down the street.

My legs lodged a formal protest with my brain, and I stumbled and fell forward onto the asphalt. Gravel bit into my hands, and I rolled onto my back gasping like I was drowning. The world spun crazily, and I felt the nothing I ate for lunch trying to gain its freedom through my mouth.

Magic comes from life, from every facet of it, and when I use it, I channel and focus that life using my will and emotions. To use it to harm another, even an enemy who is trying to kill you, has consequences. The magic that I drew on to stop the ghoul left me cold and empty, and I had forgotten how to brace up against the emptiness. I was helpless, and I knew I was going to die.

I must have laid there for a while, because the next thing I knew Mr. D. was kneeling next to me and trying to help me up.

"Simon," he said sharply as he helped me to sit up. "Buddy come on, we gotta go."

"Where's the guy with gun?" I croaked, grabbing his arm and pulling myself up to my feet.

"He split after you took out that other thing; I guess he lost his sand after his arm came off." He looked me over intently, dark eyes quickly checking to see how bad my wounds were. "You're okay man; we gotta get out of here."

My vision cleared, and the ringing in my ears died down, I blinked stupidly, the colors of the world were too sharp, and the light from the floods hurt my eyes.

"I am not okay," I said angrily, "I am miles from okay."

"Okay, I get that" Mr. D. said stepping back, there was a deep cut on his cheek, and his shirt was stained and torn open at the collar. "But we gotta get out of here man, the cops are no doubt on the way."

"No doubt," I echoed stupidly, and trotted toward my truck. I didn't say a thing when Mr. D. pushed his staff behind the seat and slid into the passenger side. Nor did I question it when I pulled the red mini truck around the smoking corpse of the blue hatchback and out onto the street.

There were sirens in the distance as I merged with the light evening traffic on Sunset, and I kept to the speed limit as I headed toward Hollywood. Mr. D. seemed to sag in on himself and his chin dipped and touched his chest. I drove on automatic, concentrating on the flow of traffic through Echo Park. The last thing we needed was to have to explain to a cop why he had stopped two bleeding men for a traffic ticket.

The traffic through Silverlake cleared up considerably, with most folks in the area home for the evening, and I couldn't hold back any longer.

"So what the hell was that?!" I said, trying to keep the rage out of my voice.

"Vampire, I don't know what the thing you fought was, maybe an imp or something?" Mr. D. answered miserably.

"It was a ghoul, a corpse sucking ghoul" I snarled, "But that was no vampire, vampires don't have pitch black eyes and try to kill me. Vampires live in freaking Chatsworth, and leave my ass alone."

"He was a red court vampire" Mr. D. said quietly, "an out of town hit man from Chicago." His voice was even; cool, like this was a regular event for him. I felt foolish for being so emotional, but I was still riding the dregs of the rage I used to broil the ghoul.

"So why weren't they chasing you? I mean why they'd try to cap my ass?"

"They were chasing me," He continued in a dry monotone. "The driver of the taxi that picked me up tried to kill me." He pulled a dark bandanna from his duster pocket and held it against the wound on his cheek. "I dealt with him and came back to see if you were okay. I think that the two in your parking lot were a safety measure, in case the creep in the taxi didn't get me. They must have been delayed or something."

"The guy said he locked his keys in the car, and he didn't have a cell phone." I replied not taking my eyes from the road.

The wizard started to chuckle, and then the chuckle became a giggle, and the giggle burst out into a full on belly laugh. He rocked back and forth, and I began to worry that he had opened a large can of crazy and it would get all over me.

"Sorry, sorry," he said sniffling, "it's just, I was hoping I rated better than the shortbus assassins. I mean you would think that you would send someone who didn't need telethon money to get the job done." He wiped tears from the side of his eyes and winced when he touched the wound on his cheek.

"I dunno Mr. D." I said catching his sound of pain as he pushed the bandanna a little tighter against his face. "We look pretty bad, I would hate to see what the varsity would have done to us." That killed the mood, and he nodded darkly.

My mind reeled trying to get through what had just happened, on the one hand Ancient Mai, and Dresden had brought this hornet's nest to my door, unintentionally granted, but that wouldn't make me any less dead. On the other hand, it hadn't escape me that the wizard had come back to save my life when he could have easily just gotten away.

"So let me get this straight," I said trying to sort out my confusion, "there are out of town vampires who just hit LA, and they are working with a ghoul to kill you?"

"Seems that way, I don't know a great deal about ghouls, but those were definitely Reds. Guess it sucks to be me right now."

I wordlessly cursed the stars, cursed Ancient Mai and Mr. D., hell I wordlessly cursed the entire east coast. You know the times you knew you were gonna screw up, that you were going to have to pay for your bad decisions in the end, but you did it anyway? That's where I was, driving toward Hollywood knowing that I was already throwing craps and picking up the dice again.

I spotted the sign I was looking for, and pulled the truck into the parking lot of a well lit strip mall. I killed the engine and checked my face in the rearview mirror. A dark angry bruise was growing under my eye, and there were scratches and cuts down the side of my face.

"Give me your coat," I said opening the door. It was easy now; I just fell into old rhythms, just followed a checklist in my head I had learned like a nursery rhyme.

"What? Why?" Mr. D. said looking around the brightly lit parking lot.

"Because scarecrow, between the two of us, I look the least like a war zone, and I need your coat to cover up the blood on my shirt so I don't get arrested."

He handed me his duster and I shrugged into the arms, it was far too long for me, and the stupid cape thing dragged on the ground. The heavy leather was too warm for California, and I wondered why Mr. D. wasn't drenched with sweat. Still, I had to admit the man had taste, the coat was very cool.

I walked through the sliding doors of the drugstore casually, meeting the eyes of the guard with a friendly nod. I was sure he had seen stranger things than me in a nights work, but there was no need to push it. Abba played over the store's speakers as I shambled down the aisles filling my cart with bandages and supplies, and the few people who did look up at me quickly looked away.

I tried to remember the last time I had to do this, the last time shopping for first aid supplies on a Sunday night seemed normal. The answer was painful, and I felt heat behind my eyes, the last time was with my mom, before it had all gone bad.

I left the store carrying my supplies in two large plastic shopping bags, moving slowly through the parking lot trying hard not to trip on the coat. When I got back to the truck I dropped the bags in the back while Mr. D opened my door.

"Alright," I said, my mind spinning furiously. "We need to get off the street; I know a safe house that we can get to. Do you know if there are any more Reds around?" Mr. D. shrugged, he was pale and he pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand.

"Sorry man," he said, his voice sounding like it was a million years old. "I didn't think they would chase me over state lines. This is all new territory for me." I nodded as I started up the truck; vampires working with ghouls, vampires not sticking to age old treaties, this was new territory for everyone.

"I gotta get my stuff from the motel," Mr. D. said as we once again pulled into Hollywood traffic. He gave me an address in Eagle Rock and I frowned.

"Not a good idea," I said tonelessly. Great I thought, stress me out a little and I start talking like the Terminator. "If they followed you to my restaurant, they'll probably be waiting for you to come back."

Mr. D. sat up, his face twisting into a panicked grimace as he wrapped his mind around a concept.

"Oh hells bells," he gasped, "Bob!"


End file.
